


Battle Scars

by Kannika



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Next-Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 23:10:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9464663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kannika/pseuds/Kannika
Summary: Future Percabeth. Annabeth’s evidence of a life well-lived manifests itself in familiar but unexpected ways.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Percabeth was one of my original otps, and I think they'd be amazing parents okay. (If a little high-strung.) 
> 
> I always loved Percy and Annabeth's grey streaks in the original series. Just a random thought about them.

It was shaping up to be a good day until Annabeth looked in the mirror.

She frowned so deeply the corners of her mouth hurt. She felt like laughing and crying at the same time, because this was a great new joke the world was having at her expense now. She wasn’t vain in any definition of the word, but come on. This was ridiculous. Thalia was going to laugh herself into a coma.

“Hey, Annabeth, have you seen my shoes? The ones with the flat black shoelaces? I can’t find them anywhere and I’ve looked in all the normal places but they’re not-” Percy entered their room and froze like she’d just morphed into a gorgon. Apparently the aura she was giving off was formidable. “Is… everything okay?”

“Yes.” It came out testier than she intended, so she took a deep breath and counted to three in her head. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Percy frowned and walked towards her. “What’s wrong? It’s too early for anything to have happened already.”

“Really, it’s fine. I’m just being stupid.” She lifted the one strand of hair up so Percy could see it. “Look.”

Percy leaned forward to examine it, then leaned back. “Um, I see. What about it?”

Annabeth scowled. “It’s gray.”

Percy blinked at her.

“I have a gray hair. I’m getting gray hairs. At _twenty-five.”_

Her husband finally caught on, and he looked appropriately shocked and appalled- for all of two seconds. Then he raised an eyebrow. “It’s only one, though!”

The only thing more aggravating than when Percy was being clueless was when he was being more logical than her. Annabeth huffed and went back to looking at in the mirror. “I know that, but… it’s so early, is all…”

Percy came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her middle, and rested his chin on her shoulder. “You’re really worked up about this.” He murmured. “You know it’s just part of getting older, right?”

“I guess.” She mumbled, and without really realizing it started threading her fingers through Percy’s hair. It was soothing, somehow, just something to anchor them together. There was no gray in his hair yet, even if it was a little lighter than when they were young. “I just… didn’t expect it yet.”

“Well I’m no doctor, but I’ve heard that stress can make you get gray hairs early, and if that’s the case it’s a wonder we weren’t gray by the time we were eighteen!” Percy laughed shortly. “…Wait. We did have gray streaks when we were fourteen.”

“Those were battle scars, Percy. They don’t count.”

He gave her one last affectionate squeeze and kissed her forehead (right at the base of where her gray streak used to be). “Well, regardless, you’ll still be beautiful even if you do have a few gray hairs.” He said in that nonchalant way that made her feel warm to the tips of her toes. “But if it really bugs you, you can always pluck them out when you find them. Or dye your hair. That sounds less painful. And I don’t mean to kill the moment, but shoes are-?”

“In the wash.”

“You can _wash shoes?”_

Annabeth held the offending strand in her fingers a second more, and then let it drop and mix with the rest of her hair. It disappeared the second she took her eyes off of it, and she tried to imagine all of her hair as gray as that one piece. It made her feel old, yes, but if she thought about it that wasn’t a bad thing. It was just a part of life.

She had turned down immortality. She knew aging was coming, and she knew why she had chosen it.

Percy reappeared over her shoulder, using the mirror to make sure his hair wasn’t sticking out at weird angles. She wasn’t sure why he bothered. It never lay flat anyways. “So? What’s the verdict?” He asked.

“I think…” Annabeth smiled at his silly reflection in the mirror, wondering how in the world one second he was the densest person she knew and the next he was making her feel ignorant as a child. “I think I’ll let it stay. Gray isn’t so bad.”

“Course not. It’s the color of your eyes.” Percy looked at her, and his eyes crinkled at the corners. “Gray hair and gray eyes… you’re going to be the most beautiful old person ever.”

From anyone else it might have sounded funny, but when Percy said things like that he meant it completely. Annabeth smiled again. “Well thank you. You won’t be half bad yourself either.”

He winked and disappeared again. “Bianca? Time to get up, baby! I let you sleep as long as I could, come on!”

“Daaaad.” And that was the voice of the light of her life sounding very similar to Annabeth when she was woken up, just swinging between whiny and murderous. “Five more minutes?”

“Percy Jackson, don’t you dare! We’re going to be late!”

_“Mooooomm…”_

“Well, the queen has spoken. Time to get up, pumpkin. You know your mom’s generally right on these things.” There was an aggravated grunt before Percy continued. “Alright, I didn’t want to have to resort to this, but you leave me no choice… TICKLE FIGHT!”

“AAAAAH! MOOOOOOMMMM!”

“She can’t save you, she’s doing her hair right now! Up, up, up out of bed! Hurry! Run!”

“AH!” Little feet pounded down the corridor, followed by the much heavier footsteps of Percy chasing her. “NO! NO TICKLES!”

“Percy, for the love of Athena don’t get her wound up right from the get-go!”

“She’s awake! What more do you want from me?” There was another shriek from Bianca just as the running feet stopped. It was good to know Percy was still fast- he’d just managed to catch a running four-year-old. “Bee, your mom’s picky and she can’t give your poor dad a break. You have to promise you won’t do that to me too or I’ll go crazy.”

“Promise!”

“Good. I know you’re lying but thank you anyway.” He emerged around the corner, carrying Bianca, who was squirming wildly in his grip. She grinned at her mom like she wasn’t causing problems already. “Hey, Annabeth, do you know where the, um…” He gestured with his head and mouthed something she couldn’t decipher. Something two syllables long…

Ah. She got it. “C-a-b-i-”

“Great, thanks!” Percy ducked around the corner, Bianca yelling “What are you spelling? I want to know!” Annabeth was just relieved that she hadn’t figured out what the word was. She was wicked good at spelling, which made her suspect she wasn’t dyslexic. They would have to resort to sign language soon, or maybe Greek or Latin. 

“Hurry!” She called at them. “Remember we have to pick up Cay from your mom’s in-“ Oh Holy Hades, was that the time already- “-Half an hour which means we leave in five! Get her dressed and get to the car, come on!”

“Fu-udge!” Percy caught himself. “This is why I married you. Bee, your mom is the reason we’re alive a hundred times over, you know that?”

She giggled, and Annabeth grabbed her hair ties to do in the car. Percy was driving this time, apparently. “I don’t know where the time goes, but it goes somewhere.” Since she’d given Percy Bianca duty she went to the cabinet herself and pulled out the present they had hidden there a week ago: a brand new watercolor kit. (She’d been getting lessons from Rachel.) There were other presents, too, of course, but they were older purchases and they were waiting at Montauk. “Come on, come on, hustle! We’ll get breakfast on the way!”

“Pancakes! Blue pancakes!”

“Tomorrow.” Percy promised, emerging from Bianca and Cay’s room with her under his arm and a bag over the other shoulder. “That’s a birthday thing and you do not get two birthdays!”

He set Bianca down and she ran down the stairs to get her shoes on. Percy wandered over to her. “You know my mom doesn’t care if we’re five minutes late.” He whispered.

Annabeth opened the fridge and gave herself a shot of whipped cream. Percy opened his mouth too, and she filled it up and then put a dab on his nose. He grunted and widened his eyes at her like _help,_ and she kissed it off. “’Late’ wasn’t even in my vocabulary until I met you, Percy. Old habits die hard.”

He called something that sounded suspiciously like ‘not what Thalia said’ except that his mouth was full. “It’s true!” she called, slipping on her shoes and swinging Bianca onto her hip in the same motion. Bianca snuggled into her side and she looked at the clock. Two minutes. They could do this. “Do you have your swimsuit?”

“Hilarious.” He got two steps down the stairs and then retreated back up. “However, hers would be helpful. Just a sec.”

Annabeth bounced Bianca on her hip and she giggled. “I wonder why I’m getting gray hairs.” She said under her breath. Percy called back “I heard that!”

The idea didn’t seem as insurmountable as it had before she was caught up in the day, though. These gray hairs were going to be her battle scars, too. And these ones she had chosen.

**Author's Note:**

> I've seen a lot of debate about what Percy and Annabeth would name their kids, but I chose Bianca and Cayden. I think they'd call their daughter Bianca for Nico, and if they call her Bee then it doesn't feel too much like resurrecting the dead. And a cay is an inlet in the sea. :)


End file.
